<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>In The Morning Light by AubreyDorst</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24390283">In The Morning Light</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AubreyDorst/pseuds/AubreyDorst'>AubreyDorst</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>All For The Game One-Shots [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>All For The Game - Nora Sakavic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 02:49:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>716</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24390283</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AubreyDorst/pseuds/AubreyDorst</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Neil finds a grey hair and is like :O</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>All For The Game One-Shots [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1761610</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>105</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>In The Morning Light</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Wrote this at 1am last night after finding my first ever grey hair.<br/>At 25 it’s a little premature for me, but i’d never imagined i would get to this place. Throughout my life, I never imagined making it past my teens. And to be here, twenty five and finding grey hairs. God, I’m so excited. It’s thrilling to see proof that I’m here and getting older every day with no end in sight &lt;3<br/>ANYWAYS it made me think of Neil so here’s this.<br/>It’s the first time I’ve written AFTG fanfic because I feel like I could never do the characters justice but here we are.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Neil is 31. It’s just a normal Wednesday, tedious in the best way. Soft light filtered through the bathroom window, illuminating the room in a warm brightness that made his chest tight and hot.</p><p>In the last 10 years he’d come to hate his reflection less and less with every passing day. But no matter how much he had grown to accept the red hair and blue eyes, no matter how used to being Neil he became, he always loathed shaving. It’s the scars on his cheeks, where the skin is devoid of hair, where he has to edge the razor against the pale flesh, the burned mutilated skin that will never tan, that will never fade, that will never let him forget who he is and where he came from.</p><p>A constant reminder.</p><p>Maybe in the best way. Neil didn’t want to forget, didn’t want to become numb to the experiences that built him. These parts of him, they were ugly and unpleasant but they were him. HE was Neil. It was the best thing he would ever be.</p><p>Some days it was hard to look at, the twisting in his gut would climb up his chest to live like a lump in his throat. Not every day, just some. Some weeks he let the stubble grow out to be a rasping coat of hair on his face. It’s itchy and uncomfortable but he doesn’t have to look in the mirror and that’s the point. That’s every point rolled into one big reason.</p><p>Today is a good day though. So far. His face is lathered in shaving cream, looking like a slightly deranged Santa Claus in the fogged up bathroom mirror.</p><p>Neil’s hand is poised next to his face, razor in hand and ready to take the first swipe at the bristly hair. But something catches his eye. Something bright and thin and so unbelievable that his hand stills midair.</p><p>For a second he doesn’t believe it, can’t even comprehend what it could be. He thinks maybe he got some food in his hair, maybe some toothpaste.</p><p>So the razor clunks down on the counter, the sound echoing through every part of him that was left.</p><p>A hand reaches up to tug at the mess, fingers that don’t feel like his own. A face that isn’t familiar stares back in astonishment. And as he pulls the lock through his fingers, nothing changes. It stays the same stark white against the auburn locks.</p><p>A grey hair.</p><p>It can’t be</p><p>It shouldn’t be</p><p>It had never occurred to Neil. He had never considered it, never let the thought even cross his mind.</p><p>All those minutes and hours and days and weeks and years that he thought his end was coming. All those moments that he selfishly hung on to. All the times he wished for more, ached for more.</p><p>And even ten years later, it seemed too good to be true. Time. More time. Time passing and slowing and speeding up and none of it mattering because he had so much.</p><p>A grey hair.</p><p>Unbelievable.</p><p>Incredible.</p><p>A testament.</p><p>Proof.</p><p>It grew from him, forged from years of hardship and pain.</p><p>And Neil was flabbergasted, absolutely in shock and awe at this one strand of hair that stood out from the rest. A grey hair. A piece of him, a piece of life, a piece of the future he never thought he would have. The future he still was in awe of every day.</p><p>And in his new life, in those quiet moments, it took a lot to make Neil smile. It took mountains and valleys and ~Andrew~.</p><p>But today nothing could stop it. Not one single thing could stop the smile that bloomed on his face. The smile that crinkled the shaving cream at the corners of his mouth. The smile that was filled with relief and disbelief and worry and hope. It eclipsed all the worry and fear and the constant ache in his heart.</p><p>Today was a good day. So far. It would be a good day. He would make sure of it. And that life that was within reach, it would be good. He would make sure of it. And he would grow old. One heartbeat, one breath, one grey hair at a time.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>